ultimatepopculturefandomcom-20200216-history
Dracula in popular culture
The character of Count Dracula from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, has remained popular over the years, and many films have used the Count as a villain, while others have named him in their titles, such as Dracula's Daughter, The Brides of Dracula, and Zoltan, Hound of Dracula. Dracula has enjoyed enormous popularity since its publication and has spawned an extraordinary vampire subculture in the second half of the 20th century. More than 200 films have been made that feature Count Dracula, a number second only to Sherlock Holmes. At the center of this subculture is the legend of Transylvania, which has become almost synonymous with vampires. Most adaptations do not include all the major characters from the novel. The Count is usually always present, and Jonathan and Mina Harker, Dr. Seward, Dr. Van Helsing, and Renfield usually appear as well. The characters of Mina and Lucy are occasionally combined into a single female role. Jonathan Harker and Renfield are also sometimes reversed or combined. Quincey Morris and Arthur Holmwood are usually omitted entirely. Films Early adaptations One of the first film adaptations of Stoker's story caused Stoker's estate to sue for copyright infringement. In 1922, silent film director F. W. Murnau made a horror film called Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens ("Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror"), which took the story of Dracula and set it in Transylvania and Germany. In the story, Dracula's role was changed to that of Count Orlok, played by Max Schreck. The Stoker estate won its lawsuit, and all existing prints of Nosferatu were ordered destroyed. However, a number of pirated copies of the movie survived to the present era, where they entered the public domain. There are reports of a 1920 Soviet silent film Drakula ( ), based on Stoker's novel. The film would have predated Dracula's Death and is thus claimed to be the first film adaption of Dracula. Nothing regarding this film is known to survive; there are no known production stills, and there is very little information about this film available. Most sources agree that the existence of this film is questionable because no details appear to have survived, and its existence is not verifiable.Glut, Donald F. The Dracula Book (1975) ("Other film versions of Dracula are reported to have been made about this time — one being Russian — but there is no real verification to substantiate these claims.") The 1931 film version of Dracula was based on the 1927 stage play dramatized, with the Stoker estate's endorsement, by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston(see below), starred Bela Lugosi versus Edward Van Sloan, both of whom had originated their respective roles on the stage in the aforementioned play, and was directed by Tod Browning. It is one of the most famous versions of the story and is commonly considered a horror classic. In 2000, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. The films had music only during the opening (the famous main theme from Swan Lake, which was also used at the beginning of other Universal horror productions) and closing credits, and during a brief sequence set at an opera. In 1999, Philip Glass was commissioned to compose a musical score to accompany the film. The current DVD release allows access to this music. At the same time as the 1931 Lugosi film, a Spanish language version was filmed for release in Mexico. It was filmed at night, using the same sets as the Tod Browning production with a different cast and crew, a common practice in the early days of sound films. George Melford was the director, and it starred Carlos Villarías as the Count, Eduardo Arozamena as Van Helsing and Lupita Tovar as Eva. Because of America's movie industry censorship policies, Melford's Dracula contains scenes that could not be included in the final cut of the more familiar English version. It is also included on the Universal Legacy DVD. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Universal Studios horror films made Dracula a household name by starring him as a villain in a number of movies, including several where he met other monsters (the most famous being the comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, in which Lugosi played Dracula on film for only the second and final time.) One 1944 oddity from Columbia Pictures that is worthy of mention is The Return of the Vampire, in which rescue workers revive a previously staked vampire during the London Blitz. Bela Lugosi plays the undead Armand Tesla, who is Dracula in all but name. Universal Studios productions of Dracula The Universal Studios films in which Dracula (or a relative) appeared (and the actor portraying the character) were: # Dracula (1931 - Bela Lugosi (collectively the most famous interpretation)) (A second version was filmed at the same time in Spanish, with Carlos Villarías as Dracula) # Dracula's Daughter (1936 - Gloria Holden) # Son of Dracula (1943 - Lon Chaney, Jr.) # House of Frankenstein (1944 - John Carradine) # House of Dracula (1945 - Carradine) # Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948 - Lugosi) # Dracula (1979 - Frank Langella) Hammer Films productions of Dracula 1958, Hammer Films produced Dracula, a newer, more Gothic version of the story, starring Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. It is widely considered to be one of the best versions of the story to be adapted to film, and in 2004 was named by the magazine Total Film as the 30th greatest British film of all time. Although it takes many liberties with the novel's plot, the creepy atmosphere and charismatic performances of Lee and Cushing make it memorable. It was released in the United States as Horror of Dracula to avoid confusion with the earlier Lugosi version. This was followed by a long series of Dracula films, usually featuring Lee as Dracula. The Hammer films in which Dracula (or a relative) appeared (and the actor portraying the character) were: # Dracula (1958) - Christopher Lee. Released in the US as Horror of Dracula # The Brides of Dracula (1960 - David Peel as Dracula disciple Baron Meinster) # Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966 - Lee) # Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968 - Lee) # Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969 - Lee) # Scars of Dracula (1970 - Lee) # Dracula AD 1972 (1972 - Lee) # The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973 - Lee). Released in the US as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride # The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974 - John Forbes-Robertson). Variously released as The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula and Dracula and the Seven Golden Vampires Though Dracula is pronounced as dead in The Brides of Dracula he is resurrected for Dracula: Prince of Darkness, before being killed off again. This formula is followed in each succeeding film apart from the last: The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. Christopher Lee, the British actor who played in the Hammer Dracula films, reminisced in a 1999 interview for NPR.Dracula : NPR Other productions 1953–1979 Drakula İstanbul'da (1953) was a Turkish made production starring balding Atif Kaptan as the count. It was the first sound film to depict Dracula with fangs. The Blood of Dracula (1957) was producer Herman Cohen's attempt to cash in on his previous success with I Was a Teenage Werewolf. The film was basically "I was a Teenage Dracula", with the same story of a wayward teenager (Sandra Harrison) being transformed into a legendary fiend by an ill-willed adult (Louise Lewis). Herbert L. Strock directed. The Return of Dracula (1958) brought the Count to modern day America. Matinee idol Francis Lederer played Dracula, who flees vampire hunters in Transylvania to take up residence in small-town America in the guise of an artist he had previously murdered. The Count begins to feed on the local populace and create more vampires before he is tracked to his lair in an abandoned mine and destroyed. Paul Landres directed from a screenplay by Pat Fielder. The film is also known, for some reason, as The Fantastic Disappearing Man. It has been shown on television under the title The Curse of Dracula. Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966) saw the Count in America's old west, facing off with a pre-outlaw years Billy the Kid. John Carradine returned to the role of Dracula under the direction of William Beaudine. The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) was directed by Roman Polanski and introduced him to Sharon Tate. This was a parody of Hammer's films and featured Ferdy Mayne as the Dracula-like Count von Krolock. Thames Television's (UK) anthology series Mystery and Imagination ran Dracula based on the book in 1968. It featured Denholm Elliott as Dracula. Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969) was a low-budget entry from director Al Adamson. Alex D'Arcy and Paula Raymond play Count and Countess Dracula, who have taken up residence in a castle in America under the aliases of Count and Countess Townsend. Too genteel to stalk their prey by night, these fiends are content to sip their blood from cocktail glasses prepared by their faithful butler George (John Carradine). In the end, they meet their doom in the rays of the morning sun. Jonathan (1969) was an arty take on the legend from Germany. Jonathan (played by Juergen Jung) infiltrates the castle of the undead Count (who is never actually named in the film) played by Paul Albert Krumm. . In this film, an attempt was made to make Lee resemble the Dracula described in the original novel.]] ''Count Dracula (1969), directed by Jesus Franco starring Christopher Lee as Dracula. In spite of its star, Franco's film is not a part of the Hammer series, and was shot on a small budget. Lee is made up to look like the description of the Count from Stoker's novel, and he does seem to grow younger as the story progresses, but the film otherwise takes some huge liberties with the plot. The international cast includes Herbert Lom as Van Helsing and Klaus Kinski as Renfield. Jess Franco followed this with Vampyros Lesbos in 1970, in which Soledad Miranda plays Nadina, a descendant of the Dracula family. CBC-TV's (Canada) anthology series Purple Playhouse featured an hour-long adaptation, Dracula based on the book in 1970. It starred Norman Welsh as Dracula. 1970 saw Al Adamson return with Dracula vs. Frankenstein, a grade Z budget film with Zandor Vorkov as the Count terrorizing a California boardwalk community with Frankenstein's monster in tow. Screen legends J. Carrol Naish and Lon Chaney, Jr. appeared, and Famous Monsters of Filmland editor Forrest J. Ackerman cameoed as an unlucky victim. In 1971, Hrabě Drakula, directed by Anna Procházková, was broadcast on Czechoslovakia television. It was reasonably faithful to the novel, except for the exclusion of Renfield. Ilja Racek played Dracula. In 1972, Paul Naschy starred in Count Dracula's Great Love, directed by Javier Aguirre for the Spanish production company Janus Films. This movie predated Francis Ford Coppola's vision of Dracula as a romantic figure by 20 years. 1972 also saw the release of Blacula, a low-budget blaxploitation horror film about an African prince vampirized by Count Dracula himself (who is portrayed by Charles Macaulay) in a brief opening prologue. The 1973 sequel, Scream Blacula Scream briefly replays this scene as a flashback. In 1973, Bram Stoker's Dracula starring Jack Palance was produced by Dan Curtis, best known for producing the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, and who worked from a script by sci-fi favorite Richard Matheson. Filmed in Yugoslavia and England, it was relatively faithful to the novel, though it tried to paint Dracula as a tragic, rather than evil, character in search of his lost love. It also drew the connection between Dracula and the historical figure of Vlad the Impaler, which was a popular notion at the time (see above). In these respects, it is also a close fore-runner of Coppola's later film. In 1974, Andy Warhol presented an outrageously campy Dracula (also known as Blood for Dracula), directed by Paul Morrissey and starring cult icons Udo Kier (as the Count) and Joe Dallesandro. Dracula père et fils ("Dracula Father and Son"), a French comedy again starring Christopher Lee as Dracula, here having trouble convincing his son to take up the family mantle of vampirism. (In interviews, Lee has claimed that his character was not called Dracula during filming, and that the producers only decided to make it a Dracula film after the fact.) 1977 saw a solid BBC version titled Count Dracula. It was made for television and starred Louis Jourdan as the Count and Frank Finlay as Van Helsing. It was directed by Philip Saville. This version is one of the more faithful adaptations of the book. It includes all of the main characters (only blending together Arthur and Quincey) and has scenes of Jonathan recording events in his diary and Dr. Seward speaking into his dictaphone. In 1978, an independent film company produced the horror thriller Zoltan, Hound of Dracula starring Michael Pataki as the mild-mannered family psychiatrist destined to encounter the resurrected hound of Dracula. Draculas ring (1978) is a Danish TV-miniseries, written and directed by Flemming la Cour and Edmondt Jensen, starring Bent Børgesen as Dracula, who journeys to Denmark on a quest to reclaim his stolen ring. The year 1979 saw three film versions released. In the first, Frank Langella starred versus Laurence Olivier as a sexually charged version of the Count in the big budget Dracula. Based on the 1977 Broadway revival of the 1927 Deane-Balderston play, in which Langella had starred in the title role, it was directed by John Badham and featured a score by John T. Williams. That year also saw the release of Love at First Bite, a romantic comedy spoof set in contemporary New York City starring George Hamilton as the Count. The third film is the previously mentioned Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht starring Klaus Kinski and directed by Werner Herzog. In this remake of the 1922 film, the vampire is specifically called Count Dracula rather than Count Orlok. Additionally, a holiday television film, The Halloween That Almost Wasn't starring Judd Hirsch, was released on ABC. It later aired on the Disney Channel until the late 1990s. Dracula adaptations 1980-1999 In the '80s, Dracula appeared as the leader of the monsters in The Monster Squad (played by Duncan Regehr) and was one of the monsters featured in Waxwork (played by Miles O'Keeffe). In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola produced and directed Bram Stoker's Dracula starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Anthony Hopkins. Coppola's story includes a backstory telling how Dracula (who is the historical Vlad Ţepeş in this version) became a vampire, as well as a subplot not in Stoker's original novel in which Mina Harker was revealed to be the reincarnation of Dracula's greatest love. Dracula serves as a tragic hero instead of being a villain. In 1995, Mel Brooks did a comedic parody, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, which parodied all of the standard Dracula themes and portrayed the count as an incompetent klutz. Brooks played Van Helsing as an aged professor and Dracula was played by Leslie Nielsen. Dracula adaptations 2000–present Patrick Lussier directed a modern day version of the story Dracula 2000, promoted as Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000. The film gives Dracula (played by Gerard Butler) a new identity as Judas Iscariot, forbidden by God to die following his betrayal of Christ and intent on corrupting the innocent. Dracula 2000 was followed by two sequels, Dracula II: Ascension (in 2003) and Dracula III: Legacy (in 2005). In 2002, Canadian cult film director Guy Maddin released his screen adaptation of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's version of the count's tale, a ballet set to the music of Gustav Mahler and titled Dracula, Pages From a Virgin's Diary. Also in 2002, the Italian telemovie Dracula was broadcast starring Patrick Bergin as Dracula. In the US, it was released on VHS and DVD as Dracula's Curse. Director Jesús Franco made the 2002 movie The Killer Barbys vs. Dracula starring the real life band The Killer Barbies whose new song woke Dracula from his eternal slumber. Dracula 3000 (2004) is a futuristic adaptation set in outer space. Van Helsing is a 2004 film based on the vampire-hunter Van Helsing from the book, played by Hugh Jackman, only reinvented as an immortal action hero assigned by the Vatican to hunt monsters. Richard Roxburgh portrays Dracula. A character named Drake serves as the primary antagonist of the 2004 film Blade: Trinity, where a group of vampires summon him in order to finally defeat Blade. It is stated that Drake is Dracula but this is only one of many names he has gone by throughout the centuries, having been born around 5000 BC in ancient Sumer. Dominic Purcell portrays Drake. Also in 2005 WB released the direct to DVD animated film The Batman vs. Dracula. It is a continuation of The Batman cartoon series in which The Dark Knight faces the Prince of Darkness. 2006 saw a revisionist BBC TV adaptation of Dracula. It starred Marc Warren as Count Dracula.http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/dracula/ A page on the BBC official website about their film adaptation of Dracula In 2012 a low budget 3D retelling was directed by Dario Argento, Dracula 3D, starred Thomas Kretschmann as Dracula and Rutger Hauer as Van Helsing."Dario Argento Vamps Out for 'Dracula 3D'" Dracula appears in the 2012 CGI Animated comedy film, Hotel Transylvania as one of the main protagonists voiced by Adam Sandler. Here, he has a daughter named Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) and a deceased wife named Martha (voiced by Jackie Sandler). Dracula gets all of the world's most famous monsters to go check into a hotel he made called Hotel Transylvania, a safe haven for all of the famous monsters to get away from humankind. Other media Stage The first stage adaptation was written and directed by Bram Stoker himself, and performed once only at the Lyceum Theatre in London for the sole purpose of securing a stage copyright on the material in England. Stoker's production, which Lyceum actor/manager Henry Irving reportedly pronounced "Dreadful!", was called Dracula, or The Un-Dead and took place on May 18, 1897, preceding the novel's publication by eight days. The unwieldy manuscript took fifteen actors over four hours to perform. In 1924, with the permission of the Stoker estate, the story was adapted for the stage a second time by Hamilton Deane. Entitled Dracula, The Vampire Play the English touring production starred Deane himself as Van Helsing. In 1927, the play, as substantially revised by John L. Balderston, opened on Broadway in a production starring Bela Lugosi and Edward Van Sloan as the count and Van Helsing, respectively. Eventually the play would see a major Broadway revival in 1977 with atmospheric sets and costumes designed by Edward Gorey. This acclaimed Gorey production starred Frank Langella as the Count, who, like Lugosi before him, would go on to perform the role on the big screen; Langella was succeeded in the role by Raul Julia and Jean LeClerc. The same Gorey sets and costumes were used for a U.S. touring version of the play starring Jeremy Brett and a U.K. touring version starring Terence Stamp. The Deane-Balderston lines were altered somewhat and played for a more comedic effect. Premiering in 1970 was the musical I'm Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night, featuring classic monsters, with book, music and lyrics by Sheldon Allman and Bobby Pickett. In 1976 Dracula: Sabbat by Leon Katz, an Off-Off Broadway rendition debuted, as did the spoof-esque musical Dracula Spectacula by John Gardiner and Andrew Parr, which would become a popular school play. Dracula, the Vampire Play by Tim Kelly opened in London at the Queen's Theatre in 1978. That same year saw The Passion of Dracula by Bob Hall & David Richmond which was also adapted into a Showtime TV production in 1980. Countess Dracula: A Play in Three Acts, by Neal Du Brock opened in 1980. Although new Dracula themed plays dwindled in the eighties, two notable attempts were: Dracula: The Musical in 1980 by Rick Abbot and Out for the Count; or, How Would You Like Your Stake?: A Vampire Yarn by Martin Downing in 1986. 1991 saw the one act play 'Dracula: Death of Nosferau'' by Christopher P. Nichols. In 1996 playwright Steven Dietz published a new adaption of Dracula (1996). The popular and successful balletic Dracula adaptation by Michael Pink and Christopher Gable premiered in 1997, to commemorate the centenary publication of the novel. It was created for the Northern Ballet Theatre in the United Kingdom. The production stays as faithful to the book as possible in non-verbal theatre. Original music was composed by Philip Feeney, the Naxos recording of the score has remained a top seller. Sets and costumes were designed by Lez Brotherston, whose career as a designer for dance began with NBT. Lighting was by Paul Pyant. The production has been seen throughout the world, most companies presenting the work more than once during the last decade. It is the lure of the novel that makes this as popular in the dance world as the film industry. This same production team is responsible for many successful adaptations of popular novels. The 1998 play Undead, Dreams of Darkness mixed Stoker's characters and situations with those from Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla, in a modern setting, written & directed by David M. Nevarrez. In 2001, Dracula, the Musical, composed by Frank Wildhorn, premiered in California. It went on to Broadway in 2004 to play 157 performances. The opera by Hector Fabio Torres Cardona was believed to be the first Dracula opera. However, in October 2004 an operatic version of Dracula premiered at the Lancaster Opera House, by the composer Paul Ziemba. Gary Sage as Dracula. The score includes a waltz, a polonaise, a mazurka, several romantic arias, a lively gypsy number, plus music to accompany several specially choreographed ballets. Here is how Paul describes the score, "In all the music, melodic themes are distinct and often strongly developed depending upon scene, setting, story, and of course, the characters." 2005 saw the premiere of an adaptation by playwright P. Shane Mitchell. By the end of 2005, the opera Dracula, by the Colombian composer Héctor Fabio Torres Cardona, opened in Manizales, Colombia. A new Northern Ballet Theatre production of Dracula was created by choreographer David Nixon in 2005 and has become popular at Halloween among many companies in the US and England. In 2006, Dracula - Entre l'amour et la mort, a French Canadian musical starring Bruno Pelletier premiered in Quebec, Canada. A French Canadian musical production (Dracula - Entre l'amour et la morthttp://www.zone3.ca/dracula/index.htm) opened in Montreal in January 2006, starring Bruno Pelletier. Dracula was performed entirely on a Bouncy Castle at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Bouncy Castle Dracula was produced by The Strolling Theatricals, the company behind the famous 'Bouncy Castle Hamlet' and 'Bouncy Castle Macbeth', which featured on ITV's 'Britain's Got Talent'. In 2010 a new musical version entitled The Blood of Dracula premiered in Scotland, UK. It ran from 13–16 January at the Denny Civic Theatre in Dumbarton. It has a Book & Lyrics by Joseph Traynor and Music by Kevin Taylor. A Sequel to the play was also written, entitled "Dracula: Resurrection", with music by Kevin Taylor. Radio In 1938, Orson Welles and John Houseman chose Dracula to be the inaugural episode of the new radio show featuring their Broadway production company, The Mercury Theatre on the Air. The adaptation was largely faithful to the book, although condensed to fit in the show's hour-long format and with a different ending. Welles was the voice of both Dracula and "Arthur Seward", a pastiche character combining two of Lucy's suitors. The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann. Loren D. Estleman's novel Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula: The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count was adapted for BBC Radio 4 and directed by Glyn Dearman in 1981 and starred Dacid March as Dracula with John Moffat as Holmes, Timothy West as Watson and Aubrey Woods as van Helsing. In 1994, Frederick Jaeger starred as Dracula in BBC Radio 4's seven half-hour-episode adaptation of Stoker's novel by Nick McCarty. On 23 February 2008 BBC Radio 4's Saturday Drama broadcast Voyage of the Demeter, a one-hour radio play by Robert Forrest that dramatized the events that took place on board the schooner that transported Dracula to Whitby. Count Dracula, identified in this play as "The Gentleman", was played by Alexander Morton. A new two-part adaptation of Stoker's novel by Rebecca Lenkiewicz was broadcast as part of BBC Radio 4's "Gothic Imagination" series on October 20 and 27, 2012 starring Nicky Henson as Count Dracula. Novels Like Frankenstein, Dracula has inspired many literary tributes or parodies, including Stephen King's Salem's Lot, Kim Newman's Anno Dracula, Fred Saberhagen's The Dracula Tape, Wendy Swanscombe's erotic parody Vamp, Dan Simmons's Children of the Night, and Robin Spriggs's The Dracula Poems: A Poetic Encounter with the Lord of Vampires. Loren D. Estleman's novel Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula: The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count pits Dracula against that equally venerable Victorian-era character Sherlock Holmes, as does Fred Saberhagen's The Holmes-Dracula File. In The Diaries of the Family Dracul, a trilogy by Jeanne Kalogridis, Vlad's relationship with his mortal descendants is explored, as are the specific terms of his vampiric curse and his pact with the Romanian peasants who serve him. The novels are written in epistolary form, and the story is intertwined with that of Stoker's novel as well as events from the life of Vlad the Impaler, expanding on minor characters and details from the Dracula mythos and Romanian history and culture. Elizabeth Kostova's 2005 novel The Historian follows several historians whose research has led them too close to Dracula as they hunt the vampire across Europe. Meg Cabot's 2010 novel Insatiable has a main character named Meena Harper who has a relationship with Dracula's son, Lucien.http://www.megcabot.com/insatiable/ In the book series Vampire Hunter D, which takes place ten thousand years in the future, D's adversary Count Magnus discovers that D is the son of Dracula, who is referred to as "The Sacred Ancestor" in the series. Freda Warrington's Dracula the Undead is an unofficial sequel to Dracula. Dacre Stoker, who is a great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, co-wrote with screenwriter Ian Holt a sequel to Dracula titled Dracula the Un-dead (Stoker's original title), which reveals that Dracula was not actually the true villain but sought to eliminate the more dangerous Elizabeth Bathory. Dacre Stoker claims that parts of the work are based on excised material from the original novel and Stoker's notes. In North America, the book was published by E.P. Dutton. Short Stories * Shepard, Leslie. 1977. The Dracula book of great vampire stories. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press. ISBN 0806505656. Edited with an introduction by Leslie Shepard: Le Fanu, S. Carmilla.--De Maupassant, G. The horla.--Count Stenbock. The sad story of a vampire.--Braddon, M. E. Good Lady Ducayne.--Loring, F. G. The tomb of Sarah.--Crawford, F. M. For the blood is the life.--Benson, E. F. The room in the tower.--Blackwood, A. The transfer.--Stoker, B. Dracula's guest.--Neruda, J. The vampire.--Benson, E. F. Mrs. Amworth.--Roman, V. Four wooden stakes.--Hartmann, F. An authenticated vampire story. * Michael Sims. 2010. Dracula's Guest: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories. Walker & Co. ISBN 0802719716. 480 pages. Michael Sims brings together the very best vampire stories of the Victorian era—from England, America, France, Germany, Transylvania, and even Japan—into a unique collection that highlights their cultural variety. Beginning with the supposedly true accounts that captivated Byron and Shelley, the stories range from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Oval Portrait" and Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla" to Guy de Maupassant's "The Horla" and Mary Elizabeth Braddon's "Good Lady Ducayne." Sims also includes a nineteenth-century travel tour of Transylvanian superstitions, and rounds out the collection with Stoker's own "Dracula's Guest"— a chapter omitted from his landmark novel. * Lanzara, Joseph. 2012. Classic Monster Novels Condensed http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1479193224 contains a novella of 28,000 words, which is closely based on the 162,000-word Bram Stoker novel and told in traditional third person narrative. New Arts Library. ISBN 978-1-4791-9322-6. Comics Dracula has been a recurring character in many comic books, most notably, the Marvel comics version of Dracula featured in Tomb of Dracula written primarily by Marv Wolfman (following two issues each by Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin and Gardner Fox) and drawn by Gene Colan for Marvel Comics in the 1970s. They concurrently published Dracula Lives (1973–1975) in their black-and-white magazine line under the Curtis imprint, thirteen issues followed by a separately numbered all-reprint annual. After the color comic ended with #70 (August 1979), the company utilized the exact title for another black-and white magazine (#1, October 1979), which was canceled as of its sixth issue (August 1980). Their version of the character would continue to be a presence in the Marvel Universe for many years thereafter, as recently as the 2006 X-Men crossover X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula. Wolfman and Colan reteamed for a three-issue Dracula miniseries comic in 1998, titled The Curse of Dracula, this time for Dark Horse Comics.Pulp and Dagger - Graphic Novel Review - The Curse of Dracula Although briefly killed in a recent storyline, Dracula was resurrected by the X-Men to help them defeat his son, Xarus, when he attempted to bring the vampires of the world together to turn the X-Men and other remaining mutants. In 2003, Dracula was re-invented as the globe-trotting "Osama Bin Laden of vampires" in the Image Comics series Sword of Dracula. One of the Elseworlds books by DC Comics is Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, which features the caped crusader fighting Dracula, who has come to Gotham City, forcing Batman to become a vampire himself to stop his foe. The novel, and "Dracula's Guest" are being adapted into comic form by Leah Moore and John Reppion, for Dynamite Entertainment, as a five-issue limited series, The Complete Dracula.Moore & Reppion on 'The Complete Dracula', Newsarama, January 30, 2009 Victor Gischler wrote, Giuseppe Camuncoli pencilled and Marko Djurdjervic created the cover of the Marvel Comics published Death of Dracula.A Preview of Marvel's New Death of Dracula Comic In 2010, IDW published Bram Stoker's Death Ship detailing the count's voyage to England from the viewpoint of the crew. Dracula: The Company of Monsters was a series from Boom! Studios, with Daryl Gregory and Kurt Busiek as writers.http://boom-studios.com/catalogsearch/advanced/result/?name=&series=598 The series was completed in twelve issues, collected in three trade paperbacks.Twelfth and last issue: http://www.boom-studios.com/dracula-the-company-of-monsters-12.html. Third collection: http://www.boom-studios.com/dracula-the-company-of-monsters-vol-3.html Games Vlad Tepes is one of the more mysterious elder vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade. An Autarkis of the Tzimisce Clan, he has been present at many of the major events in the World of Darkness, serving the Camarilla, Sabbat and Inconnu at various times throughout his existence. In Vampire: the Requiem, Dracula is the historical Vlad Tepes and a legendary figure among vampires. His clan is not known, as he, and his followers, claim that he was cursed by God himself for his atrocities. The Ordo Dracul claims that they follow his teachings about overcoming the curse of vampirism. The games draw much from the novel Dracula and vampire legends in general. In most videogames of the Castlevania series (known as "Akumajo Dracula" (Devil's Castle Dracula) in Japan), Count Vlad Tepes Dracula, as he is known in the series, is the ultimate source of evil that the protagonists must confront, after adventuring through Dracula's castle. The other aspect in relations to the Count is his son, Adrian Farenheights Tepes, commonly known as "Alucard", who has dedicated his life to ensure the survival of the human race and the preventing of his father's tyranny. Now-defunct software company CRL produced a series of games in the 1980s featuring classic horror classics including Dracula. These were the first game titles in the UK to receive BBFC certification (they were rated "15"), normally reserved for films and videos. There were two adventure games, Dracula: Resurrection and The Last Sanctuary. Both took place after the novels end and continued Jon and Mina's fight against the Count. Count Dracula appears in Sierra Entertainment's Kings Quest II, which was released in 1985. The hero of the game, King Graham, has to defeat Dracula by driving a stake through his heart. Dracula: Resurrection, Dracula: The Last Sanctuary and Dracula 3 - The Path of the Dragon form a series of adventure games. They were published in 1999, 2000 and 2008, respectively. Dracula: Origin is a 2008 PC point-and-click adventure developed by Ascaron Entertainment, in which the player assumes the role of Abraham Van Helsing in a storyline based on the original novel. Anime and manga In 1980, Toei Animation produced the anime television film Yami no Teiô Kyûketsuki Dracula, based upon Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan's Marvel comic Tomb of Dracula. It was released on cable TV in North America by Harmony Gold as Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned.http://www.vampyres-online.com/sovereign.html In the manga and anime series Hellsing, the vampire Alucard is actually Dracula who has become the servant to the Hellsing family rather than being outright destroyed. He hunts and kills other vampires, armed with two specialized pistols that are too heavy to be effectively carried by humans. Later chapters of Hellsing show Alucard, dressed in armor, summoning an army of the undead. Some of which are holding flags of Wallachia as recognized by Archbishop Enrico Maxwell and with later admittance from Alucard himself, it is confirmed that he is Vlad the Impaler. (Note that Vlad Țepeș III is believed to be the inspiration of Bram Stoker's character Dracula and is portrayed to be considered the same person in many works of fiction.) Another manga and anime series Shaman King depicts a man named Boris Tepes Dracula. A descendant of Vlad the Impaler, he reveals his own past and history and joins forces with Hao Asakura to exact vengeance on humanity. He is ultimately defeated by Ryu and killed by the X-Laws. Dracula also appears in the novel series Vampire Hunter D. In this adaptation, Dracula is seen as a vampire god-king who deals out both life and death. Dracula does not appear in the Vampire Hunter D anime adaptations, however he is referenced. The main protagonist of the series, referred to simply as "D", is a vampire hunter who slays creatures of the night for a bounty. It is implied that D is the offspring of Dracula and a human woman, and is referenced at least twice in the novel series and adaptations by the parasitic organism living in D's left hand, though Dracula's name is never explicitly stated. This can be later taken as fact within the Vampire Hunter D series as it is stated directly by Count Magnus Lee in the anime adaptation, though he did not know until moments before his death that the vampire who had sired D was Dracula himself, though D never confirms it, and Lee's daughter, who in the novel is the one to make the connection and ask D about it. However, D speaks of him with reverence several times and claims that Dracula was a noble figure who did not believe in preying on the innocent. This is one of the very few instances in which Dracula is not portrayed as inherently evil. In the second novel, Raiser of Gales D himself is very nearly brought to say the name of his father while in a psychic trap set by an enemy. In the film adaptation of the third Vampire Hunter D novel Demon Deathchase which was released under the title Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, Dracula is referred to simply as The Vampire King. The author of Vampire Hunter D., Hideyuki Kikuchi also wrote a novel that presents Dracula himself appearing in Japan sometime before the events of Bram Stoker's novel called Meiji Dorakyuu Den. The book was released in the United States as Dark Wars: the Tale of Meiji Dracula and featured Dracula facing off with several citizens of Japan, who ultimately drive him away from Japan, presumably back to Romania, where he then lives out the events of Bram Stoker's novel. The Digimon series depicts a Digimon called Dracmon, a little vampiric imp who goes around causing mischief going as far as to do things without fear of danger. He then Digvolves into Sangloupmon, who is a vampiric wolf (a nod to one of Dracula's many forms). Then he next becomes Matadormon who is a vampiric matador (bull fighter). His fully evolved form is GranDracmon whose name comes from Gran which is short for Grand and Drac short for Dracula. He is designed after a demonic version of Dracula. In the Digimon mythos he is said to be a major source of evil within the Digital World. There is another Digimon called Myotismon whose design is that of a vampire and whose English name (the original being Vamdemon) is that of a bat. His Digivolved forms VenomMyotismon and MaloMyotismon are designed after a satanic depiction of a vampire and a Chinese demon respectively. A Myotismon and his subsequent Digivolved forms serve as major villains in the Digimon Adventure anime series and saga. His most powerful form was the primary antagonist of Digimon Adventure 02. A Myotismon named Lord Vamde starts of as a quaternary villain but becomes something akin to a tertiary villain in the Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 manga. A Myotismon appears as the main Boss in the second level of the game based on the Digimon anime series Data Squad. The manga "Endo Beast" written by Riko Takahashi features a character named "Dracula" living as a commoner with the name Daniel Illiescu. He is a wealthy businessman living in the fictional world of Kanaeda, instead of a castle Daniel resides inside a large chateau with a rich view of the countryside. He plays a key role in the manga sporting a dual personality as the kind, generous Daniel during the day time, and at night turning into the evil, blood-thirsty Dracula. The manga Dance in the Vampire Bund by Nozomu Tamaki features one Mina Tepes as the female protagonist and ruler of the vampire world. It is more or less certain that she is a descendant of who we would call the original Dracula, i.e. Vlad Tepes, although the vampires have had to emigrate east to escape persecution in Europe. As Princess-ruler of all vampires, she publicly bought an island off the coast of Tokyo and declared it to be a home for her subjects, the vampire race. The manga deals in part with her efforts to ease the tensions between the newly-revealed vampire race and the humans who have to live alongside them. Seven Seas Entertainment released a webcomic call Dracula Everlasting on the internet, and release vol.1 in 2011, and vol.2 in October 2012. The third & final volume will be release in September 2013. Television * In the Season 4 episode "Monster Movie" of the television series Supernatural, a shape-shifter being hunted by Sam and Dean hides under the guise of Count Dracula, and considers Dean Jonathan Harker, and a girl he met and fell in love with to be Mina. * In the Doctor Who story The Chase, the Doctor, his companions and the Daleks came across Dracula and Frankenstein's monster although later were shown to be robots. * Dracula appeared in the commercials for Energizer in 1993. He emerges from his casket to get the battery off the Energizer Bunny only to be locked out of his castle when the wind blows the front door closed. When he gets his spare key, the sun comes up and Dracula is vanquished. * Dracula has also appeared as a villain in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in an episode called "Buffy vs. Dracula." Dracula admits to Buffy Summers that he is intrigued and charmed by her legacy as she is of him. He also clarifies the origin of her powers, regardless of his attempt to lure her to evil. Buffy, having "seen his movies", waits after first killing him, noting that he "always comes back." He reappears in the canon post-finale comics Tales of the Vampires: Antique, and later the Season Eight story "Wolves at the Gate" (both written by Drew Goddard.) Outside the canon, Dracula appears in Spike vs. Dracula, which reveals that Dracula has connections to the gypsy clan that cursed Angel with a soul. As established by his appearance in "Buffy vs. Dracula", he is an acquaintance of Anya Jenkins, and Spike claims he is a sell-out of the vampire world, fond of magic and Hollywood. The vampire popularized by Bram Stoker in the Dracula novel is also used as a basis for the ideas in the show, primarily the methods in which vampires are killed. * The enormous house in the Nickelodeon game show Finders Keepers occasionally featured a room entitled "Dracula's Den", which was constructed to resemble a room in a castle with windows with boards nailed across them (presumably to keep out the sunlight), cobwebs, bats, and a Gothic-style chair and roll-top desk. The room also featured a full-sized coffin, in which a cast or crew member usually hid dressed as a mummy or as Dracula himself. * The cartoon series Aqua Teen Hunger Force features a recurring television program called Assisted Living Dracula which features an elderly Dracula's (Don Kennedy) life in a retirement home. In one episode, the real Dracula visits MC Pee Pants in his latest incarnation as an old man named Little Brittle and bites him. MC Pee Pants leaves the hospital as a newly-made vampire, only to die from exposure to sunlight. Dracula suffers the same fate. * In the television series The Munsters, the character of "Grandpa" Sam Dracula, a vampire, clearly identifies himself as being the Count Dracula at one point. Though assuming he is Dracula, he has found a way to sustain himself without blood and is no longer vulnerable to sunlight. He is portrayed as a friendlier mad scientist-type. He still retains his abilities to turn into a wolf or a bat. Instead of the quasi-Eastern European accent usually associated with Dracula, Grandpa Munster speaks with a Brooklyn accent. * Gilligan's Island had an episode titled, "Up At Bat", in which Gilligan is obsessed with the idea that, after being bitten by a bat, he's actually turning into a vampire. The dream sequence in the episode portrays Bob Denver as Dracula. * In 2006, a successful UK children's comedy, Young Dracula, started on CBBC, featuring the Count and his two young children, Vladimir and Ingrid, trying to live discreetly in rural Wales. * At the end of the holiday TV special The Halloween That Almost Wasn't, Count Dracula (Judd Hirsch) gets into a disco suit similar to Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever after the witch (Mariette Hartley) transformed into a realistic person resembling Stephanie Mangano from the 1977 disco film of the same name. * In several episodes of the TV show Scrubs, the main character J.D. makes references to a movie he is writing called Dr. Acula, the story of a "vampire doctor." * In the show The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Dracula (voiced by Phil LaMarr) is portrayed as an African-American man who tends to speak in third person. He lives in a retirement home and really gets angry when he is referred to being "old." This version more closely resembles Blacula. * Dracula appeared in the self-titled 1990 syndicated series Dracula: The Series. The series lasted only 21 episodes and featured the adventures of Gustav Van Helsing and family versus vampire/business tycoon Alexander Lucard. * Count Dracula made two appearances in the live-action superhero show Superboy. * A mysterious vampire called Dracula appears in the Brazilian telenovela Os Mutantes: Caminhos do Coração. In fact, he is a mutant vampire created by mixing his DNA with vampire bat DNA. Unlike in the novel, this Dracula is neither invincible nor undead, but he does possess superhuman strength and the ability to fly, and he also transforms some female characters into his vampire brides. His lieutenant is a ghoulish vampire called Bram, in homage to the original author. His archnemesis is psychokinetic (and psychotic as well) vampire hunter Christiano Pena, who is bent on destroying Dracula, even if he has to kill innocents to do so. * In the episode of The Brady Bunch "Two Petes in a Pod", Peter dresses up like Dracula for a costume party. * In the Sid and Marty Krofft series Lidsville, one of the Evil HooDoo's Bad Hat Gang was Bela the Vampire Hat, a bat-eared top hat with a fanged cowl. * An episode of the British TV series Demons called "Suckers" tells the future story of Mina and Quincy. * In a skit of Attack of the Show, Dracula reviews the 2008 film, Twilight, criticizing how Edward Cullen isn't a true Vampire. * Episode 50 of The Murdoch Mysteries concerns vampire-like attacks at the time of the first publication of Stoker's book. Cartoons Dracula has even been adapted for children's literature and entertainment, serving as the basis for several vampire cartoon characters over the years, although in the interest of creating child-friendly characters, the vampiric nature of the character is often understated or not referenced at all. * Dracula (or at least his portrayal by Bela Lugosi) is the basis for the Muppet character named Count von Count on Sesame Street. * He was a recurring skit character (portrayed by Morgan Freeman) on The Electric Company. He is more similar in appearance to Blacula. * Cartoon vampires based upon Dracula also include: ** Cosgrove Hall's Count Duckula. ** Filmation's Quacula. Not to be confused with the above character. ** Count Chocula, the animated mascot of the breakfast cereal of the same name. ** Dingbat, the Vampire Dog (Frank Welker) from the "Dingbat and the Creeps" segment of Heathcliff and Dingbat was also a parody of Dracula. ** In the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Gravedale High, a cool teenage vampire named Vinnie Stoker is suggested to be Dracula's son. ** In the Monster Tails animated segment on the live-action show Wake, Rattle, and Roll, also from Hanna-Barbera, Dracula's cat Catula (voiced by Charlie Adler) is loosely based on his master. ** In the segment called "Mini-Monsters" on the Rankin-Bass cartoon series The Comic Strip, Draky is Dracula's son. ** A similar character named Count Drakeula appeared in an episode of Disney's DuckTales. ** "Drac" was one of the main characters of the Filmation animated series The Groovie Goolies. * Dracula was parodied on Codename: Kids Next Door as the villain named Count Spankulot (voiced by Daran Norris). Instead of sucking blood, he spanks naughty children. He can turn people into vampires by spanking them with one of his gloves off and can only be turned back to normal if he himself is spanked. His home is never seen in the series. He can fly without changing into a bat. * In a few episodes of The Simpsons, Count Dracula is seen attending meetings of the Springfield Republican Party, usually drinking blood (or some red liquid) from a goblet, and seated alongside such characters as Montgomery Burns, Krusty the Clown, and Julius Hibbert. Dracula is portrayed as Mr. Burns in the segment "Bart Simpson's Dracula" of "Treehouse of Horror IV". In "Treehouse of Horror XX", he appears in the opening segments as a monster who isn't cool anymore and in "Treehouse of Horror XXI" in the vampire section of town different vampires from popular culture are present, including Dracula from the 1992 film. * In the 1980s there was a cartoon about Dracula's family called Little Dracula. The title character's voice was done by Edan Gross. * Dracula appeared in the stop-motion animation movie Mad Monster Party. * Hanna-Barbera's 2 animated TV movies Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988) and Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1989) feature two rather different versions of Dracula. The TV movie The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone depicts the count interpreting Wilma Flintstone as his bride, much like how he views Mina in Bram Stoker's novel. * Dracula appeared as the titular and main antagonist in a direct to video movie The Batman vs. Dracula (2005). He had been killed in the past, but was accidentally revived by the Penguin. In this media adaption, Dracula is depicted as one of the stronger supervillains that Batman had to fight, being able to fly, and possess great super speed and strength. * The Super Mario Bros. Super Show featured an episode titled "Count Koopula", which, as the title suggests, featured Bowser as a vampire who sucked on tomato sauce. Dracula himself appeared in a live-action segment of the series. Also, the Castlevania version of Dracula was a semi-regular antagonist on Captain N: The Game Master, albeit always referred to as The Count. * Dracula (Dan Castellaneta) prominently appeared on Animaniacs in a Yakko, Wakko and Dot segment titled "Draculee, Draculaa." He was even in the intro of the series. * In the 1980 Hanna-Barbera cartoon, Drak Pack, Count Dracula is a good guy (reformed from evil) who is the "official" leader of the team. Drak, Jr. is his great, great + nephew. * Dracula appears in the Robot Chicken episode "Tubba-Bubba's Now Hubba-Hubba" voiced by Mocean Melvin. In a three-part segment that parodies 24, Dracula was shown sleeping in his casket. In the third part, Dracula emerges to help combat a terrorist threat on a plane after interrogating the suspects. After taking out the terrorists and dropping the bomb on Van Helsing's house, Dracula calls his boss to inform them that the bomb is no more, yet the passengers are dead. When the flight attendant tells Dracula that she and the passengers aren't dead, Dracula turns his attention toward them. * The character "Count Blah" from the fictional "Sweetknuckle Junction" from Greg the Bunny was a spoof of Dracula but more accurately as spoof of Sesame Street's Count von Count, who, Blah said, was actually from Brooklyn. * Count Dracula appears as a villain on Super Friends in an episode entitled "Attack of the Vampire", originally released on October 14, 1978. In the episode, Dracula arises and tries to turn the whole Earth's population into vampires. The Super Friends battle Dracula, who transforms Superman and the Wonder Twins into vampires. Instead of biting them, Dracula uses intense beams from his eyes to transform his victims into vampires. * Dracula appeared as the narrator in an episode of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. * Monster High, a Mattel fashion line of dolls and related series, features Draculaura, daughter of Dracula, she is a vegan vampire. * In the episode, "I Dated a Robot" of the third season of Futurama, Count Dracula appears only to shout BLEH! before exploding. Others The General Mills cereal mascot Count Chocula is a vampire who craves Count Chocula cereal rather than blood. His title of count is an allusion to that of Count Dracula's. The association of the book with the Yorkshire fishing village of Whitby has led to the staging of the twice-yearly Whitby Gothic Weekend, an event that sees the town visited by Goths from all over Britain and occasionally from other parts of the world. In addition, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution runs a fundraising bungee jump event in the town every April named the Dracula Drop. Mad magazine has published countless spoofs of Dracula. In one, appearing in the Mad Summer Special 1983, on the inside front cover, a cartoon sequence drawn by Sergio Aragonés shows Dracula attacking a hippie who has taken LSD; Drac staggers away, seeing colorful hallucinations including blood, bats and such. Dracula is mentioned in the novelty songs "Dinner with Drac" by John Zacherle and "Monster Mash" by Bobby Pickett. The rap song "Dracula's Wedding" by OutKast is sung from the Count's point of view. Dracula appears at the end of Tom Lehrer's song "L-Y" from The Electric Company; "You enter a very dark room, and standing there in the gloom...is DRACULA! Now how do you say goodbye?/Immediately, Immediately, Immediate L-Y! Bye-Bye!" In the film Forgetting Sarah Marshall, composer Peter Bretter (Jason Segel), in a subplot, finishes his Dracula-themed rock opera titled A Taste for Love. Russian authors Andrey Shary and Vladimir Vedrashko in 2009 published a book Sign D: Dracula in Books and on the Screen devoted in particular to Dracula image implications in Soviet and Russian popular and mass culture. The American heavy metal band Iced Earth wrote a song entitled "Dracula" on their 2001 album Horror Show. Bite-Sized Dracula is a multi-media Web 2.0 project hosted and maintained by Michael Gordon , a New York-based writer, primarily of horror fiction. The main site links to a blog designed to provide chronological full-text excerpts from the novel (using its partly epistolary structure, which tells the story through dated letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, and telegrams). It also links to a Twitter feed that retells the story chronologically in real time, from May to November, in short, witty "bites" (or tweets) by characters who have their own Twitter accounts and correspond only to those characters who do provide narrative material in the novel. There is also a Facebook page linked; this promotes the blog and Twitter feed. Tourism There are several locations associated with Dracula and Bram Stoker related tourism in Ireland, Britain, and Romania. See also *Frankenstein in popular culture References External links *Dracula at the Buffyverse Wiki * * Bram Stoker Online Full text, PDF and audio versions of Dracula. Popular culture, Dracula in Category:Vampires in written fiction Category:Films based on horror novels Category:Vampires in film and television Category:Film remakes Category:Gothic novels Category:Horror fiction Category:Works based on Dracula